Ruto’s Kasarani Speech: New CPG, 50,000 Promotions and Teacher Retirement Plans
President outlines gains in recruitment, health cover, housing and pensions, and challenges teachers to lead Kenya’s shift to a knowledge-driven economy
NAIROBI, October 5, 2026. President William Ruto used this year’s World Teachers’ Day celebrations at Kasarani Gymnasium to announce a major expansion of teacher promotions and to report progress on commitments he made to teachers last year. He also described teaching as the foundation of Kenya’s economic ambitions.
A Tribute to the Profession
The President opened by recalling that in September last year he hosted more than 10,000 teachers at State House, Nairobi, where he called teachers the great heroes and patriots of the Republic.
He repeated that message, saying that while every parent cares for their own children, a teacher is asked to care for everyone else’s.
The engineer, the doctor, the architect and the scientist, he said, all began with a teacher. Teachers, in his words, “build the people who build Kenya.”
He noted that 2026 marks six decades since the world adopted a common standard on the status of teachers in 1966.
He also pointed to Article 237 of the Constitution, which created the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to manage the teaching service and uphold its standards.
Four Inherited Challenges
The President said his administration inherited an education system weighed down by postponed decisions. He identified four problems that needed urgent action:
- A teacher shortage of 116,000, after years in which recruitment lagged behind enrolment.
- An unclear Competency-Based Education (CBE) transition, with parents unsure where children would go after Grade 6 and no settled plan for where Junior School would be housed.
- Missing infrastructure, as Junior School came on stream without the classrooms and laboratories it needed.
- A university funding crisis, in which institutions expected to receive 80 per cent of the cost of teaching each student were getting about 40 per cent. According to the President, 23 of 40 public universities were technically insolvent.
What the Government Says It Has Done
Recruitment. Kenya used to recruit about 5,000 teachers a year. Over the past four years, the President said, 100,000 new teachers have entered classrooms, with another 20,000 due by December, for a total of 120,000.
He described this as the largest expansion of the teaching workforce in the country’s history. This year’s budget also sets aside Sh4.9 billion to move 20,000 contract teachers who have served two years onto permanent and pensionable terms from January 2027.
CBE clarity. The President said he appointed the Presidential Working Party on Education Reform within weeks of taking office. On its recommendation, Junior School was placed in existing primary schools, so children can learn close to home.
This year the pioneer CBE class entered Senior School, more than 220,000 teachers have been retooled for CBE, and Sh952 million has been budgeted for further capacity development.
Infrastructure. Working with the National Government-Constituencies Development Fund, the Government has built more than 23,000 classrooms and is equipping 1,600 laboratories to support science and the new Senior School pathways.
Universities. The old financing arrangement was replaced by the Student-Centred Funding Model, under which support follows the learner according to need and merit. University funding rose from Sh44 billion in 2022 to Sh82 billion in the last financial year.
The President said the proposed Tertiary Education, Placement and Funding Bill, 2026, aims to ensure that every student admitted to a university, technical college or the Kenya Medical Training College receives full funding, so that a place depends on ability and ambition rather than parents’ income.
Budget. Education funding has grown from Sh526 billion to Sh702 billion last year and Sh784.5 billion now, the largest allocation to any sector.
The Headline Announcement: 50,000 Promotions
The most significant new announcement concerned career progression. The President noted that 126,462 teachers have been promoted since he took office, more than under any previous administration. Even so, teachers told him last year that many had stayed in one grade for far too long, some for decades.
He then reviewed the three commitments he made last year:
- Review of career progression guidelines. The TSC and teachers’ unions have finished consultations, and the guidelines now await approval by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
- Doubling the promotions budget. The budget rose from Sh1 billion to Sh2 billion this year.
- More promotions every year. The TSC has advertised 34,016 promotion opportunities, and the President directed that this be raised to 50,000, with additional Government funding. He said this would be the largest teacher promotion exercise in a single year.
Welfare: Health, Pay, Housing and Pensions
Health. Last year, teachers’ inpatient access rate was 7 per cent, against 14 per cent for other civil servants. The teachers’ medical scheme now runs under the Social Health Authority and covers 415,608 teachers and 884,392 dependants as of the end of last month.
More than 680,000 teachers and family members used it between December 2025 and September 2026 for outpatient, inpatient, optical, dental and imaging services.
The President said the inpatient access rate has doubled to 14 per cent, matching other civil servants, and that the number of facilities offering inpatient care to teachers has grown from 900 to 3,871 across national and county government, faith-based and private providers.
Remuneration. Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement signed last year, the first phase of the salary increase was paid last year and the second in July. The budget provides a further Sh8.1 billion to keep the agreement on schedule.
Housing. Under a September 2025 agreement between the Affordable Housing Board, KNUT and KUPPET, one in every five homes in affordable housing developments is reserved for teachers.
The Board is working with the TSC on a salary check-off system, and is partnering with teachers’ SACCOs on financing suited to teachers’ incomes. Teachers can apply for units through Boma Yangu.
Pensions. Since July 1, 2026, the TSC and the National Treasury have been rolling out a Pension Management Information System to speed up retirement benefits. The President said the agencies have assured him that within three months, retirement benefits will be paid within 10 days of retirement.
School capitation. Capitation was released before the start of each term this year: Sh44.2 billion in January, Sh23.4 billion in May and Sh18.5 billion in August, a total of Sh86.1 billion.
Education as Economic Strategy
The President devoted much of the speech’s second half to linking classrooms to the national economy. Citing the World Economic Forum, he said nearly four in 10 skills workers rely on today will change by 2030, with AI and data skills, technological literacy, creative and analytical thinking, resilience and lifelong learning among the fastest rising.
Services, he noted, already account for more than half of Kenya’s economy. Reaching double-digit growth and creating millions of quality jobs will require a modern, knowledge-driven economy, alongside continued strengthening of agriculture, manufacturing and production.
He cited a young Kenyan in Kisumu writing software for a distant client, a nurse trained in Nyeri serving abroad, and an accountant in Nairobi serving a company on another continent. Kenya, he said, must export what its people know and can do, since “a factory can import a machine, but a nation must develop its own talent.”
He placed Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) at the centre of this plan. He cited mathematics as the best-performing subject in last year’s KCSE examination and said 58 per cent of the pioneer CBE class chose the STEM pathway in Senior School, but added that the country must “go further and faster.”
A Challenge to Teachers
The President challenged every teacher to be “the first learner in the classroom”: to master digital tools, model curiosity, reward questions as much as answers, make room for experiment, and treat failure as a lesson rather than a verdict.
He said teachers will not do this alone, pointing to the TSC, the Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa, the Kenya Education Management Institute and the Kenya Institute of Special Education, which he called national assets that the Government will strengthen.
He also said Parliament’s consideration of the education reform proposals is an opportunity to anchor teacher preparation and continuous professional development in law.
Exam Season and Integrity
Looking ahead to the national examination season, the President urged teachers to walk with candidates to the finish, revise with them and steady their nerves.
He also called on them to guard exam integrity without compromise, saying an honestly earned certificate opens doors for life, while one obtained by cheating is “a lie that follows its holder everywhere.”
Closing: Lessons From the Teacher of Nazareth
Closing on a reflective note, the President described Jesus as one of history’s greatest teachers, one who taught through simple stories, asked questions that made people think, was patient with slow learners, and placed a child in the midst of disciples arguing over who was greatest.
The lesson he drew for teachers was to teach with patience, awaken curiosity, meet the learner where they are, and always put the child at the centre.
He ended by thanking teachers for their sacrifice, for the lives they change and for the Kenya they are building.